Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Two — I Have the High Sky
Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Two — I Have the High Sky
About an hour later, the pirate ship turned, pointing its front in the same direction as us and gaining a bit of altitude.It was still about two, maybe two and a quarter kilometres away, far enough that we couldn't make out too many details with the naked eye. What I could see was that it had a large crew, and while they didn't have uniforms or anything, they did seem like they were moving with some good amount of coordination.The crew was also all human from what I could tell, which kind of fit with the vehicle being from Pyrowalk.The Beaver and the other ships in the convoy messaged each other back and forth, trying to come up with a plan, but it seemed like the Pyrowalkian ships just wanted to keep flying as quickly as they could and hope that they could outrun the pirates... which made no sense to me. The pirate had caught up. It was staying caught up as well. There was no question that they'd be run down."That doesn't make sense," I complained."It does," Amaryllis said. "You're just not thinking about it from the right angle. Those merchants aren't warriors or fighters or even explorers. They're not ready to turn around and fight quite so easily. They'll run first.""But they'll be picked off," I said."One of them will," Amaryllis said. "The pirates will have a meal out of them, but by the time boarding is complete, the others will have fled."I stared. I... I understood it, in a way. It only made sense. But it was also so awful. Didn't they have friends across ships?Bastion came up next to me, head craned back to see the pirate ship above. "I imagine they're planning to make use of the night," he said. "Look at the underside. There are large spotlights on swivels and the ship is lined with smaller lamps, more than is usual, I suspect. They'll likely make sure that the entire convoy knows that they're there all night, then demand surrender in the morning after the crews are all tired from the waiting."I nodded along, that made some sense. "That makes sense, I guess. I imagine that there's no fighting at night," I said."Unless we do it," Amaryllis said. She glanced over to the horizon, where the sun was very much about to set. "Did you bring this up for a reason, Bastion?""Yes. And I suspect you have a very similar train of thought," he said.I sure didn't. But my friends were kind enough to explain their idea to me, and I agreed that it was better than any plan that involved just flying in a straight line and hoping for the best.Eventually we brought Awen in too, because the plan would require her to do some things to the Beaver's engine that it wasn't meant to do all the time.Clive was informed too, then the rest of the crew. We had everyone gear up as best we could. Every weapon, any armour we had and then a good hearty meal too.I looked around, then felt a small pit of guilt in my tummy. So many of my friends were under-armoured. The Scallywags and the rest of the ship's main crew didn't have any armour at all.I made a mental note to make sure to change that. It might be heavy to carry around, but gambesons for everyone wouldn't be that expensive or heavy. Maybe some helmets too, and at least a few more crossbows. So far the threats we'd faced were all so big that more armour wouldn't help much, but now it felt like it might make a serious difference.The first step of the plan involved telling the ship ahead of us-the Cramped-what we were going to do. They protested, but we moved on anyway.An hour after the sun dipped behind the horizon we turned the Beaver and aimed to the starboard side of the ship ahead and gently sped up, gaining speed as we kicked the engine to full.The ships ahead lit up their lights, and a lot of them were pointed upwards, towards the pirates, just as we'd asked. So they were willing to go that far, at least.Then, while we were accelerating, Amaryllis cast a complicated spell behind us with some help from Awen and Desiree. Awen because she knew some light magic tricks, and Desiree because she was just a pretty decent caster.The spell created a bunch of small, dim, floating lights behind us, tied to the ship ahead. The idea being that from above and from so far away, the pirates would think that the Beaver was still trailing after the others.We had already snuffed out every light on the Beaver, turning the deck dark and making it really hard to see, but we needed that.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.The pirate ship was gently following along after the convoy, unaware of the deception so far.The Beaver, however, was already hiding in the shadow of the convoy and picking up speed.As we hit just about our fastest velocity, we cut the engine to go silent and then dropped a bunch of ballast. Mostly it was water-weight. Awen spun up the gravity engine off of a flywheel, which was far quieter, and we pumped more gas into the balloons.The Beaver jumped upwards, rising so fast that I felt like I was being pushed down into the deck. All of my ears popped, and I could see that we were soon even with the pirate ship, then above it."Slight port!" I called back."Aye!" Clive replied before turning the wheel towards the pirates.I was chewing on the end of one ear as we flew over them, crossing just behind the pirate ship. "Slight starboard," I said. In the silent darkness, my voice carried well.Clive turned us the other way, and soon we were flying along the pirate ship, only a good hundred metres or so above it.Slowly, we allowed ourselves to drift lower.Looking down, it seemed like the pirates hadn't noticed us, which was brilliant. They were planning on using the dark to their advantage, to stress out the merchants and keep them on edge, and yet we were able to do that too. It was a moonless night, and we could be quiet and sneaky as well."Calamity," I called out softly. "Your show.""Alright, capt'n," he said. He planted a foot on the starboard railing, then nocked an arrow that he pulled back with a grunt of effort. His bow strained. The heavy arrow, with its glass-bulb tip, caught the light spilling off the pirate ship. Then Amaryllis, Desiree, Awen, and Caprica all touched the arrow in turn. Soon it was glowing. Not too brightly, but I could see the wavering magic of a half-dozen spells stuck to it.He loosed.The arrow hissed down, far too fast to follow with the naked eye. I leaned over the side of the Beaver and squinted down. Where had it...There was a spark that went off inside the pirate ship's balloon, a flash of orange light within the canvas covering."Keep firing," Bastion said."It didn't catch," Awen said. "They might have some sort of fire-suppression.""Let's blast a bigger hole, then," Calamity chuckled.The next arrow detonated the moment it hit the ship. Calamity had aimed for one of the thin metal bands that circled the airframe. There was a loud crack and a cup-full of burning liquid was splashed over the canvas. It sputtered at first, then caught properly.The fire didn't last all that long, but it did leave a hole large enough to crawl into.Calamity giggled, then fired again, and again, and again. The twang of his bow filled the air with a regular beat, one arrow every ten seconds or so... and he was a crackshot with them. Each one hit a band, sliced through a rope, or punctured something that looked important within.The pirates, of course, caught on soon enough.There were shouts, and the ship turned. There was a small observation post on the very top, and they lit up a spell-powered spotlight within and soon discovered the Beaver hovering above."Everyone, fire!" I shouted before aiming down and launching my own magical attack.My little fireballs barely reached the pirate ship... but they did reach. A dozen little pops as splashes of magical fire splattered against the canvas balloon.The crew's spells weren't much better. The Scallywags had a few simple spells too, which helped to fill the air with a lot of flickering lights, but it was my more levelled, mage-like friends who had the real punchy spells.Desiree cast something she called fox-fire at the ship, summoning a small two-tailed fox made of fire that ran along the top of the ship, each step leaving behind a small puddle of fire.Amaryllis muttered under her breath for a long time, then she pointed her spell-dagger down and the clear sky filled with blinding light as a bolt of what felt like real lightning came out of the heavens and rammed right into the observation post at the top of the ship. The spell-powered spotlight within popped and I swear I could see the skeletons of the pirates within for a moment. The lightning coursed through the ship, they shot out the bottom on its way to the ground.Amaryllis backed up, breathing heavy. "That'll wake them up," she said.I nodded. My ears rang, and we weren't done yet!
* * *
Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Three — Mutual Debate of Ownership Philosophy
Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Three — Mutual Debate of Ownership Philosophy
Our shots from above left plenty of holes and rips through the canvas fabric enveloping its frame. Some of those were large enough to expose the large gasbags within. They were all made of a dark fabric, maybe some sort of leather? I couldn't tell from afar. What I could tell was that we were poking plenty of holes into it. That didn't mean that it was going down so easily.Some of those holes were probably small enough that I could plug them with a pinkie, but some? There were gashes and cuts large enough to crawl into, and that meant that the ship lost lifting gas by the second.If the pirates didn't patch all of that up-and soon-then the only thing keeping them afloat would be their gravity engines and that would burn a ton of fuel.In fact, even as I gathered my mana for more fireballs, I heard the telltale sound of machinery being thrown into high gear, and the enemy ship lurched upward."Keep it up!" Calamity shouted even as he nocked another arrow, pulled, and let it loose. It whistled down and punched through one of the balloons, only to explode deep within with a short-lived gout of flames. "This flying trash-heap ain't gonna roll over and die without a fight!"He was right, the pirate ship was taking a lot of damage, but they were already scurrying around, slapping patches over the holes in the balloon, summoning water to put out fires, and a few were even starting to shoot back at us. Still, the pirates were gaining altitude. Large ballast tanks of water were opened up and spilled out below, making the ship lose a ton of weight and allowing it to rise, despite everything."Watch out," Bastion said. "They'll be able to retaliate soon.""Let's see if we can't stall that," Amaryllis muttered. She started to prepare another spell, just as big as the last.I fired off another brace of fireballs, aiming into the tears on the ship's side so that they'd splash around within and hopefully light something on fire. There were lots of things in an airship that could catch fire. We just needed a few lucky sparks in the right place, and the pirates would be too busy putting out fires to think about doing piracy.But that didn't happen.Amaryllis called down another massive bolt of lightning from above. It crashed into the top of the ship, sparks leaping from one metal part to another, before shooting out the bottom. It left a smoking hole at the top wide enough to climb into, and a lot of the metal superstructure was red-hot."I'm out," Amaryllis gasped. "I'll need ten before I can cast something like that again.""Take it," I said. "Clive! Give us some thrust! Engines on. No time to be silent. We need to get moving!"The pirate ship was climbing and gaining some speed. As it rose, nose pitching up, I was able to make out the platforms on its bottom half where the ship's ballistas were positioned. Pirates were loading them up, preparing to fire, and soon we'd be within their firing arcs."Ah! Focus on their weapons!" I called out."Got it!" Calamity said. He took another expert shot, only for it to ram into a hastily raised magical shield.They had casters? Oh no.The Beaver's engine kicked on, and was soon roaring, but that didn't instantly give us all that much speed. I jogged to the rear deck. "Give us some height if you can, Clive," I said. "Deploy all sails! I want us to catch any wind we can get. We're going to try evasive maneuvers!"Already, a few sputtering fireballs were pitched our way, arcing through the air and mostly missing, though I winced as one of them smacked into the wooden deck. No lingering fire, and it probably only hit as hard as a punch, but still, that was just a warning of what was to come.We started to gain a bit of speed and a tiny bit more height, but the pirate ship was just dropping ballast too quickly. Soon enough it was nearly level with us, and its big ballista turned, aiming our way."Shields!" I shouted.Amaryllis threw one up, and Desiree another. They were both relatively small, hanging off the side of the Beaver.Three loud twangs sounded out as the pirates fired. One missed outright. Another long bolt crashed into our shield, exploding into splinters amidst a shower of magic sparks. The last one punched into (and through) the decking.I winced. That'd take some effort to repair, but it wasn't anything critical.Awen replied. Opening up with her fast-firing multiballista turret, flinging out a bolt every second with a loud thump.They smacked into the pirate ship's side, first along the canvas, then across a few shields before leaving a trail of bolts along the main underhull of the ship.Calamity had Desiree and Caprica apply more magic to an arrow, until it was practically vibrating. His next shot was as loud as a gun, and one of the pirate's engine nacelles burst open, illuminated from within by the blossoming light of fire."Yeah!" I cheered. Then eeped as two more ballista bolts struck us. One in the foredeck, another punched right through our balloon. "Oh no. Steve, Gordon! Emergency patch job, starboard!"I received a few 'ayes' before they were off, the Scallywags running about to give them the equipment they'd need.I grit my teeth. The pirate ship was coming alive in a big way, and soon they'd be plugging us full of holes. The pirates were probably busy patching up and repairing things. I was hoping that we'd given them enough of a bloody nose that they weren't going to keep up the chase, but if we stayed so close to them, then soon we'd be dealing with a slug-fest, and the Beaver was in the wrong weight class for that.I looked around, then had an idea as my eyes landed on the Redemption. The smaller ship was roped in tight between the twin hulls of the Beaver and it had a fully-functional gravity engine and it was a strong one too...Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.That was an idea...We'd swiped the Redemption from some privateers but never really needed it for anything. The cutting-edge metal airboat was lashed in place with a fully inflated balloon, but otherwise shut down. I think Awen sometimes did maintenance checks on it when the Beaver was running smoothly."Clive!" I shouted. "Turn us toward the pirates! We're going over the top of them!" He gave a somewhat strained affirmative as I spun on my heel and sprinted for our ballista turret."Awen! The Redemption! Start the Redemption!" I saw her eyes widen. The gears in her head were turning.Awen clambered out of her turret, then sprinted across the deck. I left her to it while rushing along the edge of the Beaver, attention split towards the pirate ship who was gaining altitude and was soon going to be level with us.A few stray spells were coming up from below now, the pirate's casters doing what they could to scare us off.When I made it to the rear, I gave Clive new instructions, and just like that, the Beaver started to turn, slowly pointing its nose right at the pirates.It only took a minute for them to figure out that our trajectories were going to intersect. The shouting on their ship grew. I noticed a lot of my friends glancing back, but I tried to remain calm, collected, and brave.The twin prows of the Beaver aligned itself with the pirates. I think everyone on both ships was a little shocked by this, especially as Clive gunned the engine.I really wished I had a sword to point towards the pirates. Instead I settled on gesturing at them. "Fire everything!"My friends did just that. The number of smaller spells we were flinging at the pirates redoubled. The pirates fired back, but the only bolt that might have hit us was caught on a shield.The Redemption's engine came to life with a howl.The pirate ship loomed large in front of us. I couldn't help the fear that shot down my spine, but I kept firing fireballs and trusted Awen.The pirates were shouting back and forth as Clive kept us on course. At the front of the pirate ship, I could just barely make out people on the main deck where they had an impressive view afforded by bay windows. A man wearing a large captain's hat was glaring. Darn. If he was angry, he might choose to give chase, no matter how much we blackened his eye. His eyes bore into mine. We were so close-The howl of the Redemption's engine changed timbre as Awen engaged the state-of-the-art Snowlander gravity engine.My stomach dropped, and then we lurched upward as she threw the engine to maximum power. The safety lines tied to the Redemption creaked as it strained to take as much load off of the Beaver as possible.Clive shifted gears and at the front, the Scallywags cheered like madmen.The Beaver tilted up and rumbled past the top of the pirate ship. I think there were only feet to spare between our hull and the top of their balloon, and the only reason we didn't collide was the pirates cuttting off their own engines and venting their balloons to lose some height.That would cost them!"To the rear!" I shouted as we crossed over the top of the balloon. "Fire as you go! Amaryllis, can you make a shield for us?""I'm still out from the lightning bolts." she replied. "But ... I'll see what I can do.""Yeah, but we need to show up their mages," I said. "Imagine how scared they'll be if we stop them from hurting us at all."She puffed up a little, then started to work on a spell.When we were out of the shadow of the pirate ship, the ballista on their other side opened fire at us, but the pirate ship was rocking. Having an engine blow up was probably not great for their stability, and as I squinted to see through the night, I had the impression that their upward climb was faltering.Were the leaks in their balloons catching up to them?Calamity fired a few more arrows, nailing them into the thin metal walls of the undercarriage of the ship. It was unlikely that he'd hit anything important, but one cut hydraulic line could really make things annoying for the pirates, plus it probably spooked them to have arrows suddenly poke out of the floor.A few windows were opened, and spells and bolts fired from crossbows were aimed down at us.Amaryllis muttered something that didn't sound very polite, then threw her talons out.A large disk of buzzing, electrical energy flashed to light between the Beaver and the pirates, snapping at anything that came too close."Flashy enough for you?" Amaryllis asked. She looked a bit sweaty and tired, but the spell was super impressive."That's incredible," I said."It's mostly decorative," she admitted. "Let's make some room before they realize it?"With Clive at the helm, we moved the sails we'd deployed to catch the wind as best we could, then gunned it out of there. The Beaver wasn't fast-fast, but it was faster than the pirates were at the moment, and we slowly gained distance until they stopped even trying to fire at us. With most of the lights on the Beaver extinguished, we'd be hard to see anyway.The Redemption's howling engine spun down to idle, and we began to lose altitude.A somewhat frazzled Awen emerged from the side hatch and clambered across the access ladder onto the Beaver's deck. She came up to stand next to me. "So," she said. "The engine still works.""Are you, uh... okay?" I asked. She had a somewhat manic look in her eyes."I think so. This is what I signed up for, after all."I paused. "You didn't sign up for anything though. I kidnapped you.""Voluntarily," she argued. "And I don't plan on leaving. Uncle does much crazier stuff than this.""Let's catch up with the convoy," I said. "And then we'll see what our next steps are."
* * *
